On engaging presentations...

I was recently invited to contribute to a LinkedIn discussion on the AHRI (Australian Human Resources Institution) Group, in response to the question..."What are some strategies to create an engaging presentation?"

As anyone who reads anything I write will know, I have an amazing ablity to write around and over-complicate a topic, and have probably just driven everyone witless with my response. However, in my quest to increase my writing and blogging in 2014, I thought this might be worthy of a piece here.

All the previous contributors made excellent points about what goes into an engaging presentation... I'm not sure if you can access the discussion without group membership (just request if you want to join); if you can, it is here AHRI Group

Having read the comments, a selection of words stood out for me and rather than a direct response to the question, I decided to respond to these words...engaging, presentations, keynotes, PowerPoint, audience, facilitators, training.

Here's a slightly edited version of what I wrote;

Presentations - for me this means the presentation of something and that is that.

Keynotes - a presentation with a specific label. For me a "keynote" is a presentation that has been deemed significant enough not to have to compete with other presentations; one that it's been decided everyone present would benefit from hearing.

PowerPoint - a tool. One of many in the bag which also contains voice, non-verbals, other resources. PowerPoint is a vehicle for "presenting" some other tools - video, images...keywords... Over-reliance and starting to prepare a presentation by opening PowerPoint are well documented errors in "presentations 101".

Audience - is it ever possible to really know the audience? In addition to the cynics etc mentioned, time of day, venue, what was for lunch, who came before; are a few variables that can impact audience reactions.

Facilitator - anyone who delivers in a didactic, automaton manner is not a facilitator.

Training - for me and in my less than humble opinion, should never rely on presentations of information alone. I have been on the receiving end of too many "training" sessions that were really presentations of corporate policy and information. Whilst the presentation of some information and key points may be required, all of the comments so far indicate the additional components required to increase the learning opportunity. There is also a difference between training and educating, but let's leave that one for another day.

Eventually, and probably to the relief of the readers, I returned to the keyword in the original question; "engaging".

The discussion triggered further thoughts. There was mention of the use of humour, knowledge of the content of the presentation and delivery style. My comment was

"A few thoughts...energy, appropriately light-hearted, stories...whatever, but please remember style over substance. Too often I hear conference participants rave over a shallow "song and dance" routine. Really "knowing your stuff" has already been identified as critical. I'd combine this with rehearsing - if you really know your content, rehearsal is easy...you know when you need to brush up on your content when you find rehearsal a slog!

It IS harder to engage and focus on a presenter who's voice lacks light and shade, energy and a degree of animation. Sadly, those not blessed with performance skills (either innate or acquired) struggle, however significant the content, to share this with their audience.

As audiences, we have to learn to engage ourselves and not sit passively waiting for it all to happen. Those of us "in the know" should do what we can to encourage, from the floor, those presenters who have great content but lack in an engaging delivery style...we know what makes it hard for us, let's not make it hard for someone who deserves a fair go - everyone else in the room will do that!"

As I mentioned at the beginning, I had totally digressed from the original question...and in response to all the other participants contributions, I decided to share a mash up of personal thoughts, triggered by what had been said.

It's also timely for me to reflect on this whole topic as I'm taking on the teaching of an undergrad unit in Change Management and have received the presentation documents. Making this an engaging and meaningful learning opportunity is up to me!